Ariana's Fate
by CoffeeMoonyAddict
Summary: A befuddled Aberforth stumbles upon a crying Ariana and their dead mother in their family home - an alternative take on what ensued between the siblings that night. Response to an Ariana Writing Challenge at HEXRPG.


_Spring 1899_

A grieving Aberforth had just floo-ed into his family hideout at Godric's Hollow.

He had received the Hogwarts headmaster's consent to leave school after receiving an urgent owl from a concerned neighbour. "An unbelievable explosion and bellowing thunderous noise – worse than any earthquake I've experienced. Please do come quick," Mrs. Dowlingle had written in untidy scrawl.

The small house was in shambles, furniture strewn all over the place. The place was left in ruins, with some beams even threatening to collapse. The air was clouded with stale dust and ash.

After searching through the living room and study, Aberforth finally found his younger sister Ariana kneeling beside the unconscious form of their mother in the kitchen. Her small, pale hands instinctively clung to the hem of their mother's grey pleated dress. Tears streaked through Ariana's gentle features, but the rest of her face was kept stoic. She was far too stunned to even feel any fear. Her wispy blonde hair was plastered to the sweat on her face and neck.

"I don't know what happened, brother," Ariana whispered after a moment of silence between the two. Her voice sounded so angelic, so innocent, despite the accidental crime she had committed.

"Brother, can you please wake mama up?"

Aberforth burst down in tears after hearing her statement. His knees became weak, and the seventh year Hogwarts student fell down and hugged his sister tightly, crying uncontrollably.

"Sorry brother, I don't know how to," she continued softly. "Will mama be alright?"

Aberforth was red-faced in grief when he calmed down from his crying. He shakily cupped his sister's face.

"Ariana, my sweet Ariana," he whispered while trembling, "do you want to make mama feel better?"

Ariana nodded, still stunned about the situation. Her blue eyes and pursed lips were still too stoic for Aberforth to handle.

"Yes."

"Are you sure, my dear?"

"Yes brother, anything to make mama better."

_Sorry mother, but this is the only way to keep everyone else safe_, _including Ariana herself. Please forgive me for this._

Aberforth shakily drew his wand from his side coat pocket, and held it deftly against his sister.

His voice was still shaking when he cast the curse.

"Imperio."

* * *

><p><em>Summer 1899 <em>

Albus Dumbledore sighed as he leaned into his magically transfigured armchair, in the magically renovated living room on his family hideout. He missed his favourite armchair, since... Well, that's what lemon drops are for. He duly popped a lemon drop into his mouth – he kept a good reservoir of lemon drops anywhere he went, it helped calm his nerves whenever things started to irritate him at bit. An irritating man was never charming, nor charismatic, and could never get anything ever done.

And we all know that the ambitious Albus Dumbledore always got things done.

Still, he had been consuming quite an alarmingly large sum of lemon drops in the last month. There had been so much trouble associated with moving back to Godric's Hollow from his recently acquired personal apartment in London, the very thought of it irked him.

"To think," he muttered, "all that trouble, just to come back and babysit..."

His gaze glanced over to his younger sister sitting by the window. She had a perpetually glazed look over her countenance, which Albus offhandedly attributed to post-mortem shock.

He hated himself for being so antagonistic against his sister, for silently blaming her for all this ill fortune, but there were so many great things that could've, would've, and might have happened if not for – _Wait. _

Albus smiled to himself, a new idea forming in his intelligent young mind.

_All may not be lost just yet. _

* * *

><p>"No. Way. There is no bloody way I'm letting you bring Ariana to muggle London. She is sick enough as it is in the countryside! What sort of guardian are you?" Aberforth bellowed.<p>

Albus Dumbledore frowned at his brother's outburst. It was such an embarrassment, especially in the presence of his new friend Gellert Grindelwald. Albus had just proposed his new plan to Aberforth – to dominate the muggles, starting from the heart of muggle London. Of course, Ariana was to go with him. The poor girl can't possibly be left alone in the ruins of their old family hideout.

"Ah, I should have predicted this should happen if I were to consult your opinion."

"You are such a pig, Albus. This threatens her fragile health!"

Aberforth knew that his magic was still not strong enough to battle his older brother's. He greatly feared that his Imperius Curse, that kept Ariana benign all this while, might weaken in the course of her lengthy travel to the city. Furthermore, he couldn't risk more change that may cause his brother detecting more hints of Ariana being under the Curse – that would definitely spark a riot.

"She needs some adventure and excitement to add colour to her cheeks, my dear brother," Albus continued excitedly, "Ariana has been cooped up in this house far too long."

"Don't you dare take her away from me!"

"Well, I am her guardian, my dear Aberforth, in case you have forgotten."

"She is still my sister, as much as she is yours."

"This conversation is going nowhere, Aberforth. As far as I know, my decision as her legal guardian still stands higher than your opinions...Furthermore, you have yet to graduate from Hogwarts, and are in no position to take care of Ariana...unless, of course, there is something else you know that should gravely alter my decision?"

Albus had some suspicion against Aberforth's overly protective behaviour towards their sister. Aberforth and Ariana had been closer to each other than Albus had been to them, yes...But definitely not to the extent of such outrageous outburst.

The eldest Dumbledore glanced at Ariana, who was sitting silently by a corner, passively watching the scene. Her cold countenance held no emotion at all. She was like a doll, a marionette.

_What if... _

Albus swiftly held out his wand, pointed it at Aberforth and shouted, "_Relinqueria_!"

The spell immediately burst a sharp blue light into Aberforth, and this light rebounded into Ariana's chest amidst Aberforth's agonized cries.

Ariana's once stony blue eyes lit up in confusion at once. Her body shuddered madly. A spectrum of colours surrounded her form, causing her more fear and bewilderment. She started to wail, disoriented from her sudden lift from the Imperius Curse that calmed her persona for the past three months. The ground began to shake like an earthquake, possibly representing her own perturbed self.

The bright colours started to glow wildly and grew at an alarming rate, enveloping the other three grown men in the room.

Various shielding charms and spells were heard to have echoed in the distance, accompanied by the shack's violent explosion.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** Just a note about the Relinqueria spell...Yes, I invented it for this story :) There is no known counter-curse to the Imperius Curse, but I thought that Albus could cast the Relinqueria spell to relinquish Aberforth's Imperio on Ariana. It doesn't exactly function as a counter-curse in that way then, so we can keep to the canon :D

This won second place for an Ariana challenge at a writing contest forum. If you're interested, I could PM you the link of the site.

Liked it? Please review! :)


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